The evil that is Trump

Seventy-seven million Americans voted for Donald Trump last November. I won’t go into all their reasons. The reasons varied. I cannot help but wonder, however, how many of those Americans would have filled in that dot next to Trump’s name had they known the details about the time Trump swindled a children’s cancer charity out of millions of dollars.

You read that right. Trump blatantly stole money from a reserve intended to fund cancer research for children. I know, that sounds positively like a caricature of an evil person. It’s the stuff of comic book villainy. Only a fictional character from a 19th century melodrama, dressed in a black cape and a stovepipe hat with a waxed moustache, would do such a thing, right?

Well, it really happened. Not only that, Trump stole the money right in front of his idiot middle son, Eric. Eric started the charity. Trump stole money from it. It beggars belief that anyone, even Trump, could be that evil. Furthermore, this is not a conspiracy theory. There isn’t any doubt at all about what Trump did. So it also beggars belief that it hasn’t been reported in screaming headlines ever since. Such are the times in which we now live.

Here’s what happened. Way back in 2007, then 23-year-old Eric Trump decided to start a cancer charity for children. He had no children himself, so it was a rather odd choice. But then, Eric Trump is a rather odd man. Anyway, he gave the charity the highfalutingly egocentric name, “The Eric Trump Foundation Golf Invitational.” The idea behind it — and I admit, it’s a good one, in theory — was that since the Trumps already owned the necessary infrastructure to conduct such a golf competition, golf courses, club houses, golf carts and equipment, why not donate those resources and put on the charity for free? Like I said, it was a good idea.

And that’s exactly how it worked, at first. At first Eric could honestly say that the Trump family was donating the venue, and since he had no staff, literally all the money raised would go directly to research for children’s cancer. Great plan. Then, Donald Trump came along.

Donald Trump noticed something he didn’t like. He noticed that all this money was coming in, and he wasn’t getting any of it. That made him furious. So he started taking some of the money for himself in order to “offset expenses.” He told his idiot son to go right on telling the fools who believed him that the golf courses were being donated for free. But Donald Trump wanted that money.

And so, it turns out, did Eric. Eric started charging stuff to the charity that was not related to the charity, such as a $1,600 copper wine still and antique bottle washer, or a $25,000 portrait of his father. Like father, like son.

Reviews of filings from the Eric Trump Foundation uncovered numerous irregularities. Not only was it clear that the course wasn’t free, more than $1.2 million in charitable donations was missing. Golf charity experts said the listed expenses defied any reasonable cost justification for a single-day golf tournament. And while donors to the Eric Trump Foundation were told their money was going to help sick kids, more than $500,000 was re-donated to other charities on behalf of Donald Trump, to make him look like a selfless, magnanimous and “great” man.

Back in 2017, when the Trump administration was new, once negative publicity started leaking about the “charity,” Trump and his idiot son backed away from it. The shame of it is, they really did in fact raise millions of dollars for St Jude Children’s Research Hospital in Memphis, Tennessee. The problem is they also stole from it. In the end, the people who got screwed were the scientists working on a cure and, of course, the children with cancer.

But Donald Trump doesn’t give a shit about any of that. Contrary to what he sometimes says, Trump isn’t interested in anything or anyone but himself, and his willingness to rip-off a children’s cancer charity ought to serve as final proof to anyone with a brain. Trump’s only interest in America is the second and third letters of the word. The ones that spell “ME.”

Robert Harrington

Robert Harrington is an American expat living in Britain. He is a portrait painter.